The following transcript is intended to aid in your study. However, while we try to go through the transcript, our transcripts are primarily computer-generated and often contain errors. Please forgive the transcripts’ imperfections.

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Segment 1

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For church members in the 1830s gathering to Ohio and building the city of Zion were spiritual, as well as temporal labors with many practical matters to address, such as someone needed to buy land where the saints could settle, someone needed to print books and other publications, and someone needed to run a store to provide goods for people in Zion.

In the Revelations recorded in doctrine and covenants sections 51 through 57, the Lord appointed and instructed people to handle these tasks. He also instructed the people on how to become Zion, which may have been more difficult than building, printing, or running a store. Welcome to the Sundown Monday Study Group, a Desert Bookshelf plus original, brought to you by LDS Living, where we take the come Follow Me lesson for the week, and we really dig into the scriptures together.

I'm your host, Tammy Lac Hall. Now, if you're new to our study group, please follow the link in our description and it's going to explain how you can best use this podcast to enhance your come Follow Me study. Just like my longtime listening friend, Columbia Carter. I loved meeting you. Another awesome thing about our study group is each week we're joined by two of my friends, so it's always a little bit different and today is different 'cause we have three friends.

Oh, this is so fun. Okay, we have Natalie Telford Colemere, Tiffany Telford Larson, and Jenny Telford Olsen. Hi, ladies. Hello. Hi, Tammy. Thanks for having us. Hi, Tammy. This is gonna be so fun. Um, first of all, here's what I want you guys to do, so we know what your, whose voice belongs to who. We'll start with this.

Tell me what is your favorite treat? If you could pick a treat. So we'll start. Tiffany, what's your favorite treat? I would say my favorite treat is a Snickers bar. Perfect. Natalie, what's your favorite treat? Uh, Dr. Pepper. Zero and an Éclair. Can I do too? [00:02:00] You bet. An Éclair, please, sister. Listen, I've already decided if Éclair aren't in celestial kingdom, I want nothing to do with that place.

I'm with you. Jenny, what's your favorite treat? I would say a maple bar from Dunford Donuts. Ooh, delicious. Excellent. And I will tell you this, don't ever ask that question to a boy when you're at a steak dance because he's gonna think you said, what's your favorite tree? And he's gonna say to me. A Cyprus and I was like, what is a Cyprus?

Is that a new candy? I've never heard of that before. He looked at me like a weirdo and I go, you're the weirdo. I said, what's your favorite treat? He thought I said tree. So there you go. Thank you for hearing the tea at the end, ladies. Oh my gosh. This is gonna be such a fun discussion because I mean the three of you, how long have you known each other?

Well see. Natalie's five years younger than me, so, yep. And Tiffany's five years, I think, younger than me. So Jenny's known us for 10 years longer. So for me, I have known my sisters for 40 years. Yes, I am 40 years old and I'm the baby of the family. So 40 years. So I just know that this episode's gonna be filled with some really good stories.

I. And I'm hoping some really good sister chemistry. This'll be fun. Here's how I know these three that I absolutely love is their parents are my neighbors. And years ago when the podcast came out and they started listening to it one time, they invited me over and I just gushed over them. I love them so much.

'cause we just sat in their dad's garage and talked, well it was actually, he didn't have the garage at the time, so we just sat in the shade of the pine tree in the backyard. And they come over every Sunday and they have these the most awesome family gatherings on Sundays where the kids play football in the backyard and all the adults sit in the shade and talk and drink their Dr.

Peppers. And I remember thinking, that is what I want. I want my family to come to my house every Sunday in the summer and just play. And I love that about your family. [00:04:00] It's a fun tradition. We won the genealogical uh, lottery. Yes. Like our parents and our grandparents instilled such. Traditions that. Yeah, like seriously, Tammy, you are part of our family.

You come join us anytime. Amen. We do often we'll go over and then my girls, of course you all have very handsome teenage boys and so my girls always like to look over the fence and watch 'em play football. They'd kill me if I knew I just said that. And they totally have noticed. Yes, they have the girls watch.

Yes, yes. They put on a show. Oh, I love it. I love it. And whenever the ball comes over our fence, they act all put out. I'm like, I'll go get it and give it back to 'em. Oh, I'm sure you will. All right. Take the football back. Okay. That's cute. Oh my gosh. This'll be fun. Okay, so if you guys are wondering what my guests look like and you wanna know more information about them, please check out their bios.

You're gonna find those in our show notes, which are found at LDS living.com/sunday on Monday. And if you have a family photo of everybody with your parents, will you put that into, 'cause that's a fun picture to see. Then you can see down. And Karen, who by the way, just celebrated their. 55th wedding anniversary.

Is that right? Today? 54th anniversary today. Happy anniversary. Oh, I love those two. Alright, well grab your scriptures and something to mark your scriptures with and we are gonna dig into doctrine and covenants. Sections 51 through 57. Okay. You three. What did the Holy Ghost teach you? As you read these seven sections, and we'll start with you Tiffany, and we'll go Tiffany, Natalie, and Jenny.

Okay. So while reading these seven sections, the, the most interesting thing that stood out to me was the pattern that I saw with certain words, which is interesting because the more we dove into the podcast, it started such like you talked about the patterns, you know? Yeah. Um, it talked about his laws, his commandments, [00:06:00] his church.

This is one church. This is one place we all are one. Oh Tiffany. Now that's powerful. I wanna know. Mm-hmm. When you read his church, what did you think of? When I read that, I thought of his church, meaning we are all one, we are all called to certain callings to, to be able to be one for his church. Does that make sense?

It absolutely does. I'm writing that down because to be his church and to be one is pretty much what the call is in all seven of these chapters. Thank you for sharing that. It also was, um, we are aligning ourselves with him. Yep. And that's also a choice. We're not being forced to do this. This is a choice that we are making.

Oh, that's so cool. I love it. Thank you. So good. Natalie, what'd you get? So, I, it's so funny how all these memories, knowing we were gonna do this together, were coming back. So what stood out to me is, first I was thinking about these saints were coming from missionary work that was being done. They were coming through the harbor.

They, I mean, these people were just coming from all over the place, just totally like different people. And so when I read, um, section 51 16 and he said, and I concentrate unto them this land for a little season. And then a little bit later it says that wherefore let us act upon this land for years and this shall turn unto them for their good.

Like they were only gonna be there for a little bit. So it was so funny how memories, as I was thinking with just my childhood with my sisters and our brothers, um, was just a little [00:08:00] season. And then back to Jenny's an empty nester. I am really inching up to an empty nester. My outta my six, I only have two at home.

Tiffany is into those teenagers with all of hers. And so soon she will be an empty, like it was such a little season, but heavenly father was asking them to give it. They're all, even though they were only gonna be in certain lands for a little bit. Mm. And so I just kept thinking of that, that we are asked to do things, callings, parenthood, you know, grand datings, which will be a long season.

Think heavens. But um, you know, we're asked to do things a little seasons, but we are asked to give it our all, even sometimes knowing that it's just for a short amount of time. Oh my goodness. That was so fun. I just circled for a little season what great perspective. You're absolutely right. 'cause everything we're going through really is just for a little season.

And then like you said, if we can just endure it, well it will turn to us for our good. Oh, that's cool, Nat. Thank you. Okay. Jenny, what about you? Well, for me, I think that what really stood out to me is that everything he asks us to do, I. Is it, it comes with a benefit for us. Um, so rather than him just saying, do this, it's, it's not like there's not a reward for us in the end.

We might not see that right away. Um, but for example, in 51 19, he said, if we're faithful and just we get to enter the joy of his Lord in 52, 34, it says, if we're faithful, we'll be kept and blessed with much fruit. And then in 54 6 it says, if we keep the covenant and observe the commandments, we get mercy.

And in verse 10, it says, uh, that if we're patient, we get rest to our soul. I don't know about you guys, but rest to my soul just sounds like heaven to me. That just is something that I think that I crave. And I love the [00:10:00] idea that he, he's not going to ask us to do something without providing this huge benefit and this huge blessing for us in the end.

Wow, Jenny, thank you. I didn't even have verse 34 marked in section 52. That's beautiful. He that is faithful the same shall be kept and be blessed with much fruit. I can see just from you being sisters, everything you shared beautifully ties in that being part of his church and being one and making a decision to do that.

In this little season of our lives, if we can just be faithful, we will absolutely be blessed with much fruit and that fruit looks different for everybody. And I think that's kind of the idea behind these sections is everybody's got fruit, everybody's got stuff they've been blessed with and what are they gonna do with it?

And how are they? Are they, are they willing to be one, like you said, Tiffany, are they willing to do that? And this is a little season, but it was a difficult season because like we said, they're moving to Ohio, nothing's here. They've gotta build houses and find land and figure out how to sustain themselves and live their lives.

And so they are so worried about this. And Edward Partridge is the bishop at the time, and he has no idea how to handle this. We have all of these saints now coming into Ohio. So he calls Joseph, he calls for Joseph Smith, and Joseph Smith comes to see him and he says, how do I do this? Like, I know you just gave us a law of consecration, but I don't really like, what do I do?

And so Joseph then asked, and God answered, and we'll find out what the answer is in the next segment.

Segment 2

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It's so fun having three sisters who love each other so much. And so I prepared you with this question because I wanted you to tell me what are your sisters good at? What do you think each other is really good at? Jenny is really good at bringing everyone together. So I re like when we were little, [00:12:00] I remember, um, our parents went through some hard things and one of the consequences of some hard things of, you know, I think others' choices, I don't even know if I have the story right, but with some financial, um, hardships and it was an anniversary of my mom and dad's like today, so I don't know how many years ago this was, but we, um, we're moving from one house to another house.

We had to stay in this teeny tiny little house that they rented with six kids and make this. And I just remember it being mom and dad's anniversary that none of the rest of us even had a clue about. And Jenny wanting to make it special. So when Tiff, when you said, I've known my sisters for 50 and you know, and we were talking about the anniversary sporty mine and Tiffany's eyes.

Sorry. Four. Yeah. But when we were talking about their anniversary, mine and Tiffany's eyes on our screen I noticed went to Jenny. 'cause we don't know exactly what year it is. We know it's over 50 'cause we celebrated that. Mm-hmm. But Jenny knows, right? Like Jenny is really good at like celebrating people and thinking about other people and um, not always thinking about herself.

Like when we go to our weekly lunch, I think all the time she's the last to talk because she wants to know how everybody else is doing. Jenny's really good that Tiffany's the nurturer Tiffany like, is super. Nurturing wants everybody to just be at their best and be at their happiness and watching with her kids, like just wanting them to have any experience possible like she is the super nurturer.

Oh, how sweet. All right. Tell me about Natalie, you two. I think that the thing that I love about Natalie the most is she is a doer. If, if she wants, if she wants to learn something, if she wants to start something new, she is so unintimidated, and I've always really admired that about her because she'll, she'll take the time to study it, to learn it, to gather the knowledge, and then she, she just does it like she's.

Done it forever. And [00:14:00] I, I think that is such a wonderful quality to have. I personally will talk myself outta something before, you know, I'll actually do it. So, yeah. I, I love that about Natalie. It's called a DD. Yeah. Too many browsers open. Oh boy. You're speaking my language. There we go. Um, can I tell you about Tiff please?

Okay. So Tiff, I agree with Natalie a hundred percent. She has a way of making people feel comfortable. She is easy to talk to. She makes you feel like she is so focused on just you at that time. I feel like a hundred bucks every time she does my hair. And I feel like I've had this amazing counseling session when I leave.

Aw, she is awesome. I'm gonna add listener to that then. Very cool. Okay. Okay. You ready for Jenny? I have. She is really good at accomplishing tasks. Um, she, she's really good with her work ethic. She's strong-willed that way for Natalie. Um, Natalie is very good at designing, creating, coming up with stuff in her head that needs to be created and she does it.

Wow. Okay. I wrote down so fast and furious everything you said, 'cause we're gonna come back to that. This is so cool. For those of you listening, I want you to think right now, and this is your time to gush over yourself in your journal, write down what are you good at. And what do you think your spiritual gifts are?

I need you to do that for this segment because it's really important when it comes to the law. We have this law of consecration that the Joseph Smith has talked about, and when we talked about it with Sharon a couple of weeks ago, one of the things we pointed out is we're not waiting for this law to live.

We've been asked to live it right [00:16:00] now, but what we wanna understand about this law is here's Edward Partridge. And he's saying to Joseph, I don't, I don't really get it. How do I get the work done? And how are we able to build Zion here in Ohio? Let's go to section 51 and we're gonna look at verse three, and we'll start there.

And Jenny, can you please read verse three for us? Sure wherefore, let my servant, Edward Partridge and those whom he has chosen in whom I am well pleased, appoint unto this, their portions, every man equal, according to his family, according to his circumstances, and his wants and needs. Now, highlight verse three.

'cause here's the main instruction of this law. You're going to appoint unto these people their portions. Every man equal, circle equal. And I'm gonna draw a line to the outside of my scriptures because I wrote not identical. That's important to know. He's saying equal, but it's not gonna be identical according to his family, according to his circumstances, and His wants.

And his needs. And then in this same section. As he's talking about all this, and I think it's so great. We have verse 16, wonderful that it is for a little season. He's telling that to Edward Partridge and he's going to be a bishop. And it in verse 14, it's interesting 'cause he says, the Lord says to Edward Partridge as he shall be employed in doing this business, meaning his bishop is going to be a full-time job.

That is what he will do for the church. He won't have any other outside income, full-time job for a little season. And then we have in verse 17, it shall turn to them for their good. And then he says in verse 19, Natalie, will you read verse 19 for us? Sure. And who so is found a faithful, a just and a wise steward, shall enter into the joy of his Lord and shall inherit eternal life.

Thank you. So we're gonna circle the word steward because this has to do with all of us, this word steward. So I looked up what a steward is, and I'm just curious though, Tiffany, you just got off a [00:18:00] cruise. On your cruise ship. Was there a steward on your ship? Yes. What does a steward do on a ship? They take care of you?

Oh, I'm not a cruiser, so I don't know this, but I do know that there is a, there is a steward on a ship. 'cause I watched the love boat in the eighties, so, well, let me rephrase though, because. They take care of you. But that means they keep your room clean, they serve you on there. They Right. Okay. That's, no, I think that's so great.

So that, 'cause that's what I thought of when I read Steward. I thought of a ship, someone who's gonna take care of me, which kind of is true when it comes to this word, the definition of a steward according to the church website. And you can look up really cool words and. You type in any word, and it will give you this whole dictionary of words, not the Bible dictionary.

It's separate, but it's on the church website. It says, A steward is a person who takes care of the affairs or property of another. That which a steward cares for is called a stewardship. All things on earth belong to the Lord. We are his stewards. We are accountable to the Lord, but we may report on our stewardship to God's authorized representatives when we receive a calling of service from the Lord or his authorized servants.

That stewardship may include both spiritual and temporal affairs. So when we started and the three of you shared each other's gifts or things that you're really good at, that is in part your stewardship. It's what God has given you and it sounds like you have been and are doing a really good job of being stewards.

And then I asked everyone to think about what you're good at. Now listen, this is not the time to shy away from that request. I try to be humble or think, oh, I don't have anything, or, no, not me. I'm not good at anything. 'cause here's the reality. You need to recognize what it is so that you can be a steward over that gift.

God has given it to you. So what are you doing with it? If you're being humble and saying, I don't really have a gift. [00:20:00] That's just not true. Everyone does. And in fact, the Savior is so serious about our stewardships. Let's go back and look at verse 19 and see what he has to say to us about what he has given us.

Who so is found a faithful adjust. And a wise steward shall enter into the joy of the Lord and shall inherit eternal life. And I wanted to know a little bit more about these words. So I asked you guys to come prepared, and I wanna know. Describe for me what is a faithful steward, A wise steward, and a just steward.

So let's start with you, Natalie. What is a faithful steward? What did you find? So, I found it interesting that knowing we were gonna do this podcast and hearing the word steward, it doesn't really show up in everyday language. Right? Right. But in the last week, it showed up quite a few times for me. It was really, it was crazy.

The, okay, tell me about that. So I just, um, have this new job opportunity, which having that come about and working on this podcast, which is totally out of my wheelhouse, I was like so overwhelmed. But I went into my little training the first day and the person literally said, we have to be a good steward in what's allotted to us.

And I was like, whoa, that word just doesn't come about. Heavenly Father's trying to help me. So I thought that was really cool. So in being a faithful steward, I think faithful, um, it's like building up, supporting, um, standing firm and handing stuff to God. Mm-hmm. So, like you were saying, when I was really thinking about being a steward, everything in this life is Heavenly Fathers that he has blessed us with, gifted us with, you know, our children, our home.

I mean, in me this week, it has never been more evident that heavenly father was answering prayers in a career opportunity like that. [00:22:00] It was something for me that came out of nowhere and Heavenly father was like, here you go. This is mine. That I am allotting to you this opportunity right now, I, I'm giving this to you.

I mean, even with my children, they're his. And I had experience that maybe we'll talk about later, where it was never more evident to me that my children were his first, they are his children. And so my job as a faithful steward over children or anything is to be, to build it up, to help it, to encourage it, to support it, and when, you know, necessary to hand it to Heavenly Father in anything we do.

Our callings, you know, we've all had callings in the church, some that we absolutely love, some that are a little bit harder and sometimes when it's time to hand them back, it's, it's hard sometimes. But it's Heaven Fathers first and it's his, it's his church. It's Christ Church. We need to hand it back 'cause he knows what's next.

Right. He knows the bigger picture. Yeah. Like we don't always know it and so we hand it back Other things. My husband's a Trek lover loves Trek and I do too. Don't get me wrong. But we have done so many treks in like big aspects of Trek, right? Like in charge of, okay, oh my goodness. Or in charge of all the food, or, right?

Mm-hmm. And awesome. Love it. But it's okay for me now to say it's okay for somebody else to have trek blessings. I'm okay with that. My husband really hates it when I say that. 'cause he wants to go every time. But you know, it's okay to realize it's Heavenly Father's first. To be a faithful steward is to help it out, right?

Build up what we have been allotted, and then it's okay to let the Lord still be in charge. Oh my goodness. That was a perfect definition of faithful steward. Loved that. And I love the notes that I just put in my scriptures. I'm gonna use it. We're gonna come back to that. So good. Thank you. Okay, Jen, tell us what a wise steward is.

What'd you find? [00:24:00] I. So a, a wise steward, um, I think is a lot about being accountable. I found in DNC 1 0 4 13, it says, the Lord says he will make everything accountable as a steward over all earthly blessings. So I think being wise about something definitely means being accountable, using your time wisely.

Um, you could, you know, use examples like a budget you, you know, making sure that you budget enough money to be able to pay your tithing, pay your past offerings. Um, one thing for me in my personal life, I've been on this health journey for the last three years and exercise has really become a, a big part of my life.

And I, I learned very early on that if I budgeted my time or made my schedule in a way that I could do it first thing, then there was never a reason to say, eh, i, I, I don't have time for this anymore. Or I'll just do it later. Just like, you know, saying our prayers, reading our scriptures, all of the, you know, Sunday school answers, those things are still important and it's not gonna take too much time to do them.

And if we put the Lord first, then there's always gonna be time for everything else, and everything else is always gonna fall into place. So I think to, to me, the word in and of itself wise. Means you, you know, being, being mindful of things like your time, being mindful of the things that Heavenly father asks of us, and also the blessings that we want, that really we're entitled to.

Heavenly Father has promised us blessings that that will come. But we have to be wise in our thoughts, in our actions and how we use our time to be able to be worthy of those blessings. That was a great definition. Well done. Thank you. Okay, then we have one left. So Tiffany, tell us what you found out for a just steward.

[00:26:00] Okay. So the just steward to me was a little bit more complicated. Mm-hmm. Uh, but what I come up with, and I hope I'm on the right track, is knowledgeable. Oh, we can be just a steward. We can be just steward, but we have to put forth the efforts. We have to figure out. Why we want to be a steward. Mm-hmm.

You're absolutely right. When I look at these, and here's the interesting thing about this verse, because the first time I read it I thought, oh, I could be one of those things. But the more I read it, it feels almost sometimes overwhelming. Like I gotta be faithful and just and wise. But the way you three broke it down.

Yeah, you can be faithful just and wise in your stewardship and don't you love how if you're that you will enter into the joy of his Lord and shall inherit eternal life by doing those three things. So I'm looking back at this building up and supporting, being knowledgeable, being accountable, and being mindful.

All of these words are so powerful because then we go back to how we started and I said, so we are not waiting for this law to live. We're in it. We are living the law of consecration. We have covenanted to do that. And so I'm imagining you three as stewards with the gifts that you have. And I'm picturing, you know, Jenny and Tiffany and Natalie bringing their gifts.

Natalie, as a doer, I feel like the Lord has given you the gift and ability. You are a stewardship over your ability to get things done. And Jenny, you have a stewardship over bringing everyone together. And that's just what you've taken on and done. And Tiffany. Stewardship of being a nurturer and a listener.

Not everybody can do that. And so I feel like when we join Ward, we're almost going to the Edward Partridge of our ward, our bishop, and saying, hi, here's what I have to offer. Put me to work. That is what God gave me. He gave all of you these gifts. And then I think, how are we using the gifts God has given us in this [00:28:00] stewardship moment?

Am am I building up the kingdom? Am I knowledgeable? Am I accountable and mindful of the gift that I have? And am I using it in the right way? And I just love to know any thoughts that are coming to your mind when it comes to those gifts you have? 'cause Natalie keeps shaking your head and I know she's got something to say.

So we good at Nat? Well, I just, um, when you're talking about living the law of consecration, now. So I have been really kind of like trying to, with my family, my six kids, some of them have spouses, and my grandchildren. I'm doing this little like are we thinking celestial? Mm-hmm. And so every once in a while I love to pop in that little picture with President Nelson and he is like to decide and he's like, are you thinking celestial?

And so out of nowhere, like my family just gets that text and it's something that we've kind of been focusing on for this year. So as I'm thinking about thinking celestial and ultimately eternal life, I am learning that part of eternal life is right now living the law of consecration is right now eternal life is not something we're fully going to gain later.

We are gaining pieces of eternal life right now. And I know anybody and everybody that has someone they love knows what that means. They know what that feels like. Like just that. That pure love of Christ and that eternal love and just wanting the best for someone and wanting, like, I think that's part of eternal life right now.

Like we're doing that. Mm-hmm. Right now. And, and also part of, you know, thinking celestial and having eternal life is to know our savior better. To become like God is like, we're, we're trying that, we're doing that now. Like that's the goal, right? Yeah. Like, that's what we're, so when you're talking about living a law of concentration now, that was what was coming to my mind is these, you know, being a steward and gaining eternal life like all of that is now.

Mm-hmm. You know, being willing to take what we're giving, what we're giving and, and hand it still to the heavenly Father, like, [00:30:00] yes, give it to me and I'm gonna do what I can with it, and you are gonna just make it so much better if I give it to you. Yeah. And now it, it makes so much more sense too, the idea that it's equal but not identical.

Like all three of you have equal gifts. Not identical at all. Not one of you repeated the other gift for the other. Mm-hmm. But I love how you're like, and now heaven only father, I'm gonna give it back to you. Or same with family size children that you have. You're all different, but you're equal. And now the Lord's like, what are you gonna do with it?

Am I faithful and wise and just steward? What will you do with it here on earth? And I love that connection, Natalie. Like, this is eternal life. We're trying to figure that out here. Um, I love that because then when we do get up there, it will be familiar. Wow. And, um, yes, Tiffany, with what Natalie said, we're all just, we're all trying, we're all striving to try to be our very best.

Um, but to be a faithful steward, a wise steward, a just. We can't just go through the motions of it all. We have to, again, like I've said, over and over try. Mm-hmm. Oh, I like that. And that's not a simple thing all the time. It's not even on a day-to-day basis, but even with your word just next to it, I put just try.

That is so good. Wow. Tiffany, thank you. This has been a fun discussion on this, but we're gonna keep talking about it for more, um, in more of these sections. And so here's what's interesting about this. After Joseph and the Lord gave Bishop Partridge some ideas about how to run this and how it's gonna look, about a month later, there's gonna be a three day priesthood conference and we get to learn one of the most powerful truths taught at this conference that the Saints needed then.

And I think we need today, we'll do that next..

Segment 3

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[00:32:00]

I will say, one of the things I noticed, I'm looking back over all the things that you guys said you were each good at. Nobody said you're good at sewing and you guys are you sewers? Anybody take a sewing class? I would guess that if anybody could sew, it's going to be Natalie. Am I right? And I do like to quilt and tip can Yeah, I'm barely, but you know what, actually Jimmy is like an expert cross Stitcher.

I was gonna say. So that type of sewing? Yes. Oh, okay. And, and she taught both of us to cross stitch. Mm-hmm. And like, I love to crochet, like Ryan's mother and, and grandpa both taught me and, and I love that. And Tiffany Embroiders and stitches. So like sewing with a sewing machine. I think all this can sew in a straight line.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's boring. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well this is perfect then. 'cause here's my question. Tell me what's the benefit of a pattern. It's like a guide. It, it gives you direction. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, and like, so in my world, I work in recipes and, and with flowers, and even with flowers, I have to follow somewhat of a recipe.

Whether it's a recipe I've created or a recipe, I'm looking at something, somebody says, I want this exact thing. If I don't follow a flower recipe, then my creative juices get going. And I have spent seven times what I can make. Right? Yeah. Like I have to follow. Recipe in baking if I don't follow recipe and I throw in salt instead of sugar, nobody wants what I'm making.

Right. Oh my gosh, that's so great. I'm putting these notes you need. It's a guide it so direction it doesn't turn out if you don't follow the pattern or the recipe. Anything else you wanna add? Tiffany was put out to me was a pattern that actually makes everything run smoother. [00:34:00] Ooh, that's good. It makes it steady, it makes it calmer.

Okay, hold on. I love the word you just used. Steady and calmer. Oh, that is perfect for this. It can also create like, it, it has a purpose. It could create a habit, you know, if, if you follow a a pattern, it could lead to a habit. Good or bad. Hopefully it's good now that's good too. Okay, we're gonna take everything you guys said and we're going to apply it to doctrine and Kevin's section 52.

Here's what you wanna know about Section 52. Here we are at this PRIESTHOOD conference, a three day conference. And in this revelation, several missionaries are gonna be called on missions. So many men. If you wanna highlight verses seven through nine, that was, those are some verses of mission calls. And then highlight verses 21 all the way to verse 40.

It's just men called out by name called on a mission and where they're going to go, but before they go. And part of this revelation is we've got verses 14 all the way through 19 and we have a word that relates to pattern. And Tiffany, you started us out with this so perfectly with pattern, you noticed a pattern.

And here we have a specific one in this section. So let's go to section 52. We're each gonna take a verse. We'll read verses 14 through 19, and we'll start with Jenny, then Natalie, then Tiffany, then me, and then back to Jenny. Hmm. Okay. Verse 14. And again, I will give unto you a pattern in all things that you may not be deceived for.

Satan is abroad in the land and he go of forth deceiving the nations 15. Wherefore, he that prayeth whose spirit is contract the same as accepted of me, if he obey my ordinances, 16, he that speaketh, whose spirit is contrite, whose language is meek and Ed. The same is of God If he obey [00:36:00] my mine ordinances, and again, he that tremble under my power, shall be made strong and shall bring forth fruits of praise and wisdom according to the revelations and truths which I have given you.

And again, he that is overcome and bringeth not forth fruits, even according to this pattern, is not of me. Wherefore by this pattern, ye shall know the spirit in all cases under the whole heavens. Okay. Now I want you, the three of you to do this for me. Go back to those verses and I asked you to look for examples or help us identify the Lord's pattern for avoiding deception.

But now I love how you defined it. Tell us when it comes to deception, what does the Lord talk about that could probably make us steadier or calmer or give us purpose. I love all of your answers. What could give us be a guide or a direction to us when it comes to deceptions? What'd you guys find? One thing that stood out to me in versus 15 and 16, uh, I love the word contrite.

Mm-hmm. Uh, because it goes both ways, right? He expects us to align with him, but we also expect the same of him. Good one. I loved it. I highlighted that for sure. Contrite. Great pattern. Keep going. What do you guys got? Well in 15, the he that prayeth, if we pray, and then those that speak to us, if their language isn't as meek and edify, it is the same of God.

If, if it edifies us, if it's meek, like if it, if it stirs something in us. I mean, I've had people speak to me that their language is not meek and it stirs something in me. Mm-hmm. And it's very recognizable that that is not what the savior would stir in me. Right. Yeah. I think too that, uh, both 15 and 16, they both reference obey ordinances.

When you think [00:38:00] about doing an ordinance, sometimes you're just kind of going through the motions. If, if it's something that you have participated in before, I mean, if, if you go to the temple and you're, um, doing baptisms or, you know, endowment session or initiatives, it could so easily become repetitive where we're just almost numb to it if, if we don't have the right frame of mind and the right spirit.

Um, so that word obey or ordinances, I think says a lot because there's a lot that we can get out of it each and every time we go. Mm-hmm. If, if we're really in tune with what we're doing. Oh, I like that. And I think sometimes, so in 17, like, Hey, that tremble is under my power. I think sometimes in our worldly view of things like we just think.

Well, we just have to submit. Mm-hmm. Right? Like, well, it's just the way it has to be. We don't have choice. Like Tiff says, it's a choice. Like she was referencing earlier, you know, like we do have choices, we have agency. So I think when we read that, sometimes we think of God as just this, you know, err, it has to be right.

But that's really not what he's trying to say there. He's saying if we recognize his all power, right? Mm-hmm. His all knowing and even back to being a steward, when we recognize that everything is his and that he has sole willingly given us all of our blessings, right? Yeah. Our shelters, our nourishment, like all that is his, when we recognize it as those who tremble under my power, it's, it's not a fearful trembling, it's an awe.

It's an amazement that we are so loved. See, I was gonna ask what you thought about that, and I love that you answered it. That's exactly what I was thinking. That word tremble is in awe. You're absolutely right, [00:40:00] Natalie. It's not a scared tremble. It's an absolute in awe, in reverence, in just in glory. Like, oh my goodness, heavenly Father.

Wow. Yeah. Wow. Okay, so do this for me then, because I asked this question, I want you to think about it. So what are some examples of deception in our day, and we know it, but apply these principles right here. Apply this pattern to the day we live in today. How would you teach this to a child or a grandchild or someone you love if they come across something that they're not quite sure about?

Apply this pattern to that.

I think that the world. I, I, I think that, um, the world tries to convince us that ev everything's okay. That the, the things that are harmful to us, the things that do not lead us to heavenly father, um, the, the things that don't help us to stay on that right path, they, they can be so twisted and turned in, in a way that the world makes it look like it's okay.

And isn't that one of Satan's favorite things is just to, to, to have just those little bits of truth in there so you feel like it's okay. Mm-hmm. Um, and that's not always easy to teach in the world that we're living in. There's so much coming at us from every direction that it's trying to convince us completely the opposite of what it really is.

Well, you're right. Absolutely. One of the things that stood out to me was, who are we listening to? Who are we relying on to find out that truth? Because like Jenny said, everything is coming at us from every direction. It's so easy to get so caught up in the news in social media, but it's important for us to remember to [00:42:00] go to the correct source.

I just wrote this down on the side of my scriptures because when you were talking about that, Tiffany, who is the source? Then I applied. Everything is the source. Speaking is the, is the language the source is using Meek is, is the source edifying me? Does the source believe in God? Do I think the source prays?

Uh, and then I think the things you said, does the source make me calmer? Does it make me steady? Does the source give me guidance and direction? I. Because if it doesn't, and I love how you said this, Jenny, it's not gonna turn out how you said if you don't follow a pattern, it's not gonna turn out. And so I love that we can apply that to the sources that we're looking to.

Natalie, will you read this quote for us? It's by Elder Stevenson. It's October, 2019 conference talk, and it's called Deceive Me Not. And it falls right in line with what all three of you have been talking about when it comes to being deceived. Okay? They, the saints are either unable to see things as they truly are or are unsatisfied with the truth.

Moreover, there are forces at play today designed to deliberately lead us away from absolute truth. These deceptions and lies go far beyond innocent, mistaken identity and often have dire, not minor consequences. Satan, the father of lies and the great deceiver, would have us question things as they really are.

Either ignore eternal truths or replace them with something that appears more pleasing. He maketh war with the saints of God and has spent millennia calculating and practicing the ability to persuade God's children to believe that good is evil, and evil is good. Thank you. Did any of you have thoughts about that quote when you read it earlier in preparation for this?

So I remember as a little kid hearing that the day will come where good will be perceived [00:44:00] as evil and evil be perceived as good. Yeah. And I thought there is no way that the grownups are gonna let that happen. Mm-hmm. Like, right. Like, yeah. You know, I mean, we got in trouble for doing naughty things. Right.

There's no way that that is going to happen. And in my, you know, years on the earth, I just really cannot believe, I'm not saying I'm a perfect grownup. But I really am shocked by how this has happened, how we've just, you know, either distraction and some of it's done by love for somebody going through, through something.

Right. And you just, yeah. You just want 'em to just be able to feel the way they wanna feel. Right. Like I just, I really have been, as I look at that from the time I looked at as a child thinking, no way, no way can that happen to where we're at today. It's, it's sad. Mm-hmm. And we see it all around us. We see it in our leadership, we see it in just relationships, in families, all sorts of things where you just, I'm, I'm with you.

Like, there's no way we would ever do that and Wow. Some, yeah. It's, it's, it is heartbreaking. And I saw, I don't, I don't even remember where, like, I can't remember what happened an hour ago, but something about, yeah, me too. We pick up our phones, like the average adult picks up their phone. It was like over 200 something times a day.

Yes. So you think about what is the first thing when you pick up your phone and you know, you open Instagram or Pinterest or you know, you think about, and so not only is it the distraction of picking up our phones that many times a day, but what is being slowly put in. But Jenny's saying, if we don't take the pattern to make time per Heavenly father mm-hmm.

If we don't have that as a pattern or a habit in our lives, first and foremost. Yeah. Gosh, [00:46:00] we don't really have a ground to stand on when things are only gonna get worse is right. Yeah. That's what's prophesied. It's only gonna get harder. Okay. So I just had a thought as you were talking about that because I.

Here's a good example. My daughters and I were on our phone the other night and we were just scrolling through funny videos, right on Instagram, funny videos, and one came up and it started saying some swear words. And so like younger me. Like you said, we couldn't do naughty things. One swear word and it's over.

Like, you're in so much trouble, forget about it. But I sat there with my daughters and one swear word happened and I was like, okay, well if you know that may, that might be the only swear word. And then another swear word happened and I was like, maybe we should switch it. And then the swear word of all swear words happened.

And I was like, oh, okay. We switched to the next video and my girls were like, we hear worse video words than that at school. And I'm like, I'm sure you do, but I don't want it in my home. That's an example, because that word would never have been spoken or uttered in my house growing up, ever or never. Were you allowed to watch a TV show or a movie with that word?

And I'm watching a video on my phone, a quick five minute video that had so, you know, three swear words in less than 10 seconds. Yeah. And so, and for my girls to be like, oh, we hear that all the time. I probably said that too as a high school kid. But you heard it outside your home. Now it's in my home.

That's an example. Yeah. And the sad reality of it is, is like for everything there's good and evil, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm. So having phones like there is so much good. Yeah. I mean, we get so much done on our phones, but the reality of it is the Satan knows that that phone would have, you know the word even today when you're saying, you know, when you were younger, that word never would've been spoken or in your home.

Nope. If we didn't have phones, it probably still would never be in our home. Right? Right. Yes. So that's the opportunity is teaching the kids. Like you said, when you hear it, it's immediate. You turn it off [00:48:00] immediately and you can go to this pattern and even take a moment, I, and I wish we had done this yesterday, so I could have had the moment with my kids and said, did it make you feel contrite?

Did what you hear edify you, did it speak a good language? Like no. Okay. Then we've got, that's, that's God's pattern. This is not. Next. So, uh, can I add something please? Um, something that I learned from a friend was, uh, we have our phones nowadays, right? Mm-hmm. We have our WW we have the social media, we have the news, which we've always had the news, but, um, that those are all also a blessing.

We have to treat them nicely. That's what I tell my kids. Treat your phone nicely. Treat your social media nicely. Oh, I like that. I like that a lot. Wow. Well, thank you three of you. That was a great discussion on that section and on those verses. So I'll tell you while there at this conference, something that was interesting is there's a man by the name of Algernon, Sidney Gilbert, he attended this three day priesthood conference.

He name was not called out to go on a mission, and so when the meeting was over, he approached Joseph Smith and he said, Hey, you didn't call me on a mission, so what does the Lord want me to do? Well, we'll find out what the answer is in the next segment.

Segment 4

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Turn to section 53 of the Doctrine and covenants at Sidney Gilbert's. Request the prophet inquired of the Lord as to Brother Gilbert's work and his appointment to the church. And there's some very interesting verses here. We wanna start with verse one, and I'm going to have you highlight two specific words so we can make sure we understand what's going on here.

I'll read verse one. Behold I say unto you, my servant Sidney Gilbert, that I have heard your prayers and you have called upon me that it should be made known unto you of the Lord your God, concerning your calling and [00:50:00] election in the church, which I the Lord have raised up in these last days. Okay?

Highlight calling and election. In this instance, it's two separate terms. We're talking about his calling in the church and what he has been elected to do. That's what that term means right there. I know in our religion, we also know this to be something else, but that's not what it's referring to here.

It's solely. Sidney, I'm gonna tell you what your calling is and then what you've been elected to do. So first of all, what we wanna find out is here's what his calling is. This is so fun. Go to verse four. And Jenny, can you please read verse four for us? Sure. And also to be an agent UN to this church in the place which shall be appointed by the bishop according to the commandments, which shall be given there hereafter.

Highlight agent. So he is going to be an agent. And what kind of agent this is. So fun. A real estate agent. That is what he'll do. His job is to buy land in Ohio so that people can come and build their home. So that is his calling, but here's what he's elected to do. And this is really interesting. And we have this in verse two and then verse seven.

So Jenny, will you read verse two and then skip over to verse seven. Sure. Behold, I the Lord, who is crucified for the sins of the world, give unto you a commandment that you shall forsake the world. And again, I would that you should learn that he only is saved to endure to the end, even so. Amen. Okay, underline, forsake the world and then endure to the end.

This is so fascinating because I just wanna know if this is the answer you received to be a real estate agent and then forsake the world and endure to the end. How you feeling about that?

Talk about being called out, huh? Oh, I'd be like, but I didn't wanna do that. I wanna go on a mission would've been easier, right? Oh, [00:52:00] so I asked my guest to tell me a little bit, Natalie, talk to me about this idea that he has to forsake the world. We were just talking about like all the influences that come at us, right?

Yes. Dayton has gotten so good at making things look so appealing, especially when the strength for youth changed and it kind of became that higher law. Yeah. It was more like instead of having three hour church, we now have come follow me, and you have the choice to receive the blessings of doing it, right?

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Or you can go home and start your nap earlier, which sometimes happens in my household. But you know, now same thing. We, we don't have the strength for youth that says things point blank anymore. Heavenly father is asking us, use your agency, and you were entitled to the blessings that come from the choices that you make.

But if we stop and think Celestially. Our prophet has asked us to do. Mm-hmm. And we understand that we are obeying covenants, we are obeying promises that we have entered in with. We are, you know, using our agency, the blessings that we will receive from withstanding from things of the world or higher.

It's a more joyous way to live. The other thing that really caught me in these chapters was everything is preach by the way that was said. It said so many times, preach by the way, preach by the way. And I think we are all called to be missionaries. We are all called to be, you know, stewards of this gospel to preach.

By the way, if we are living a life that is, um, more consecrated, more unspotted from the world, it is so much easier to preach, by the way. Yeah. I feel that is like personal opinion of Natalie. Like if I can. With [00:54:00] staying and keep myself unspotted and some of these things in the world, some of 'em just come, right?

Mm-hmm. You were innocent. Mm-hmm. Watching videos with your girls, you were spending time. Yeah. I thought I was being mom of the year. Right. Something that they enjoy and, and so I had to learn for a little bit to play Fortnite when that was a big thing. I was horrible at it. Tiffany's really good at it. No, I'm not.

I look like I'm terrible. Whatcha talking about? I just look like a zombie running in circles. But anyway, doing something innocent and something very vulgar came in, right? Mm-hmm. That was not a choice. That was not a, but what it's, the choice is where do we go from there? How do we teach? How do we stop immediately and move on?

And sometimes for me, like when those things happen and they just come at me from nowhere, sometimes it does take that pattern of I first need to say a prayer. Yeah. Like, this is bigger than me to get out of my brain or out of my soul, it needs to go away. So being unspotted from the world. Forsaking the world takes the pattern that we talked about in the last segment.

Yeah. We have to redo, review that pattern over and over and over, and then we have to make the choice and heavenly father gives it to us. It is the greatest gift he has given, and he will not take it away from his children ever because it is the greatest gift he's given besides the Savior. So he will not take that away.

So Natalie, I have a follow up question for you because we know what his calling is, which is to be an agent and the word elected, especially in Section 25, where Emma's called an elect woman. The word means chosen. So if we think about how Sidney is chosen to forsake the world, I wanna know from you, has there been a specific time in your life where you felt called upon or chosen to forsake the world?

Like what have ha, what have you had to forsake for Jesus Christ? And I know that's so personal. If you don't wanna answer it, you don't have to. Gosh, I just might need a minute to. [00:56:00] Get through. Hey, while she's thinking, can I say something really quick? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Ponder that. Okay. But, um, one thing that I do wanna say with having teenagers right now, I have to give the props for the world that they're living in with the strength of youth pamphlet that they have nowadays.

Mm-hmm. Back in my day, I needed the guidelines. Right. Yeah. I needed it to be more blunt. But these teenagers, they're strong. Mm-hmm. They're able to, to figure it out for themselves Yeah. Of what the strength of youth pamphlet is saying mm-hmm. And what it means. Yeah. You're absolutely right. Okay. So in thinking of that, um, and obviously without sharing details, um.

There are times where I have had to forsake the world. And honestly, let's put it this way, there's times where I didn't forsake the world and I had to rely on the atonement. We all go through when you know there are times like we are going to stumble, we are going to fall. And so yeah. I've had to forsake the world in the fact that I have learned that the atone is a daily process.

It is so important. You cannot forsake the world without it. If you don't have what the savior was willing to do for us and take all that on so that we can be forgiven. It's impossible to forsake the world. Yeah, and so forsaking the world is a daily decision and sometimes, yeah, we make choices and they're hard and we realize, okay, that was worldly.

But the good news is, is the savior says, I'm so glad you recognize that. I have been [00:58:00] patiently waiting for you to recognize that. Now let's fix it together. Oh, I love that, Natalie. I put right here. Use the atonement of Jesus Christ next to that verse, because I don't know, that's pretty cool when you consider, but I wanted to go on a mission when really I, you've been chosen to forsake the world, um, to lean on the Savior and learn about him.

What a great, now that's a calling I think all of us should really take into our lives. Verse two, I think we've all been commanded that we shall forsake the world. And so as he forsakes the world, then we get this blessing in seven. And again, I would, that you should learn that he is, he only is saved to endure to the end.

What does that mean to you, Tiffany? So this one stands out strong to me because, um. Well, going through life is hard. It's not easy. We all know I'm not perfect. I think I'm the one who probably misbehaves the most out of the sisters. Yeah. No, no, no. Um, but I think just enduring to the end. Enduring keep going.

Um, there's so many times where I want to just give up. I'm done. You know? But why don't you,

because I have a knowledge and I actually, because I've also been taught, we were raised in a very good home. We are very blessed. We felt like we had it all growing up. Um, and I'm striving to make my kids' life as magical and as [01:00:00] great as it was for me. But of course, that world no longer exists, so of course it's harder.

But I think just keep trying, keep going. Enduring till the end, Tammy. In the beginning when you asked us like what they were good at and then what their spiritual gift is. Mm-hmm. So it's evident, you know, TIB has some struggles that she's had since she was born and her spiritual gift is her knowledge.

Mm-hmm. She has such a strong testimony that giving up to her is not an option and she fights through every single day. Her and Jenny, we all have struggles, right? We all do, but their, their knowledge and their testimony. Just, it gives them the desire to endure to the end, but not just endure, but to do it with their own style, their own flare and grace.

Yeah. They are some of the strongest testimonies that I know can feel it. So the cool thing about my sisters and the cool thing about doing this podcast together, it is there's no judgment with my sisters. Mm-hmm. I can literally tell them anything. If I hit rock bottom, I can tell them. And believe me, I have, we have that.

Yep. I, I'm exec. Yep. I'm, I'm exactly the same. It's, it, it's one of those things where, you know, if somebody were to ask me who, who my best friend is, you know, of course they say My husband first, and then I say, my sisters and, and my daughter's asked me before, she's like, but they're your sisters. Who's your best friend?

And I'm like. My sister, it, it, it's a bond that I think, um, has gotten us through a lot and especially through, you know, a lot of the hard times in life [01:02:00] and the enduring to the end thing. I, I, I can't think of better people to end endure to the end with, you know, I've, I've got my, my core group of people and they are my family, both my, my little family and, and, and my, my siblings and, and my parents.

It, it just, it doesn't get any better than that. We, we have a very, very good, and I know a lot of people don't have that, and I am truly grateful for that. Wow. You can feel it. Thank you. Thank you. We have a little sister's lunch that we do. Mm-hmm. And, um, right now we, well, over the last little while, Jenny got us going on studying conference talks, and so we get together and we talk about that, but we also solve all the world's problems.

I'm not sure worry about, I would expect that we get a lot done in this meeting, but wow. We solve our world's problems. Well, my little, um, Xander is my senior this year, and he is a volleyball player and he's very talented. And he was at a friend's house and the parents were in the hot tub. And so the kids just went and jumped in with them and they started talking about volleyball and the mom said, you know what?

That's all you guys talk about. Like, that's it. So she pulled out her phone and was like, here's questions I'm gonna ask. Like she just, you know, a little cheesy app or whatever. And so the question came to Xander is What makes you feel loved? And Xander told her, so for two weeks in a row. Um, I have been available during lunchtime, but it's on my mom's sister's lunch day and my mom invited me both times to go, oh, and I know how much she loves that.

And he's like, that made me feel so loved. Wow. That I was, I got to be included in that. I had no idea. But that just shows you how important that like our children know that we are to each other and that we need each other. Yeah, well you've, I have felt that, I feel the love that the three of you have for each other.

And I love Jenny, how you said there's nobody else I'd wanna endure the to the end with than my sisters. So thank you for sharing that, and thank you for [01:04:00] sharing your thoughts. The three of you. That was beautiful. So after section 53 is given, we're gonna go into section 54, and I've asked these women to read over this section to answer this question because here's what's going on.

A few days after this conference, Joseph found out that a member of the church who owned 759 acres of land in Ohio, and he agreed to share his land with the saints, now changed his mind. And he actually kicked the saints off of his land with no solution now. And so we have these homeless saints. So in the next segment, we're gonna discover how the Lord handles this crisis.

Segment 5

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Okay, so I just wanna know, have you ever felt disappointment when someone you depended on didn't keep their commitments? I wanna know how it feels. Jenny, you're shaking your head yes. How does that feel? Well, I think we, we've all had, had those experiences and when you do have those experiences, yes, there's the disappointment, but there's also hurt anger questions.

I think that all of those things are, are the things that happen first. Mm-hmm. Before you're able, how do you handle it? Yeah. How do you work through that? Well, I guess it depends on the situation and I certainly could think of some situations where I could have handled it much better, that's for sure.

Yeah. That's where the atonement comes in, right? Mm-hmm. For sure. Yeah. I, I, I think one particular circumstance that, that I'm thinking of is, I, I really had no choice but to be professional and, uh, to accept that things were not gonna be the way that I wanted them for, um, a, a, a time. Mm-hmm. And, um, have that trust that what I was being told would eventually, uh, turn around.

And I, I could think of, of o [01:06:00] other situations like that, you know, on other personal levels where sometimes to work through things means that you just have to accept and trust and have that faith that it will work out in the end. Ooh, I like that. To accept and trust and have faith that it'll work out in the end.

I feel like that's the mess message of section 54. And so I asked you guys to read through this because I wanted to know what did you find in section 54 that would've been a comfort to the members of the church who kind of now are homeless? What would've been comforting for them in this section? Or maybe did you mark anything that could be personally comforting for you?

I think, um, versus six and 10 were the two that really stood out. Um, oh, read them. Yeah. It's kinda like what I was saying, um, in, in the beginning. There's a, there's something we have to do, but there's a, a reward in the end, verse six. But blessed are they who have kept the covenant and observed the commandment for they shall obtain mercy.

So again, we we're, we're getting something bigger than I think. What he's asking us to do. It, it may seem like what he is asking us to do is really hard. Mm-hmm. But when you think about it, the obtaining mercy is really bigger than what he asked us to do. Um, and same, same with first 10. And again, be patient in tribulation until I come and behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me.

And they who have sought me early shall find rest to their souls even. So. Amen. Mm-hmm. Um, again, he's just saying, all, all you have to do is be patient through the trial. I get my patients from my dad. I love you, dad, but I'm not, she means there's not but much. I don't have a lot of [01:08:00] patience, so that one's a little hard for me.

Uh, but that idea of rest to their souls, just, it, it sounds like such a. Big blessing to get for something as small as just being patient through the tribulation. But I feel like when you've been wronged or, or not even just wronged, when something that you put so much hope in just, and, and maybe even so much effort in or something, and it's just not going right.

Mm-hmm. Like the human side of us just sometimes doesn't comprehend the patience is the answer. Right. Right. I mean, we're just Oh, yeah. Looking for anything and we're grasping at anything. And so sometimes the human part of us has to go through the process of how the human brain's gonna work. Mm-hmm.

Before the spiritual part of us can say, okay, I am ready to hand this to you. You know? And, and we all go through things that like, we just, we have no control over them. The heavenly Father is saying, I've got you and I need you to learn this because you're gonna have to know it for something else that's coming, you know, for whatever his purpose is.

We don't know, but you know, sometimes, I mean, we've all been through things where we are just like grasping at anything and asking for each other's help because we are just like, I am with end. And sometimes it just takes the process, you know, a different pattern per se. Yeah. Until we are like, okay, I understand that you're in charge and I'm gonna hand this to you and I'm just gonna be faithful until you tell me what the steps are.

You know Natalie, as you were speaking, you perfectly summed up verse one. I think that is exactly what, what he is saying with those words in verse one. Behold, thus sayeth the Lord, even Alpha and [01:10:00] Omega, the beginning and the end, even he who is crucified for the sins of the world, I mean by saying Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

He's saying what you just said, like, I can do anything. Like I'm in charge. I've got you. I have your back. I know you must be terrified right now thinking, how will my family live? How will we eat? How will we survive? What's going to happen to us? We just left New York and we sold our property and our home to come to Ohio.

Like this is not what we had planned on. You can just hear it, can't you? You can hear their voices. This wasn't part of the deal. I kept the covenants, I got baptized. I believe in you in this church, and this is what I'm getting. And so here we have the Lord going. Yep. And. Blessed are you for keeping the covenant and be patient in tribulation.

In fact, many times in the doctrine covenant, he'll say that, be patient in tribulation. I think at one point he says, for there will be many and it's, it's not going to get easier, but it's, it's going to be doable and you will have rest. I love how you love that Jenny so much. They'll have rest of their souls.

Oh, you can just hear the collective sigh of the saints. Right? When, and that's nearing to the end. Maybe huge part of Heavenly Father's plan was it's gonna take time because is it Leman? I call it Leman, Leman, lemon, whatever his name is. Leman like heavenly father has a plan for him too. Yes. Those who have wronged us, heavenly Father has a plan for them too.

And sometimes the patience is because heavenly Father is working out his plan for them. Yep, absolutely. And don't you feel like so many scriptures are about comfort for all of us? I feel like that is what the goal of the scriptures is, is to offer us comfort. It's to teach us the gospel of Jesus Christ and to help us endure to the end.

In fact, this is my question for everyone for the week, what is your go-to scripture for comfort? I'd love to know that. 'cause I bet all of us have one that we just like, this is the one, but I love section 54. 'cause verse 10 is such a go-to comfort verse, [01:12:00] be patient and tribulation until I come and I come quickly.

And I love that. Like, is he coming tomorrow or when he comes, is it quick? I don't know. Um, and my reward is with me. Oh, isn't that great when he says that? 'cause it's actually our reward too. And so these verses are so good. And it did offer the saints some comfort when they heard that they It absolutely did.

But after this segment was. After this revelation was given. In fact, I love to the outside of section 54, I wrote, be patient and tribulation. That's what I always wanna remember. Section 54 as the Be patient and tribulation section. There's going to be more tribulation and more is going to come. But one of the things we wanna know is at this three day priesthood conference, one of the men who was called on a mission had some tribulation.

'cause now he's no longer able to serve. So in the next segment we're gonna tell you why he can't serve a mission anymore and what the Lord has to say to him and as a result, what he has to teach to us. We'll do that next.

Segment 6

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I had to tell you a funny story. Several years ago when I was a new mom and I had little tiny kids, I was with some women who had older kids and they were talking and I remember them. One of the women asked a bunch of us and said, what do you think it means to you to be rich? What's your Definit definition of Rich?

And I knew what mine was. It was to go to finally go to Disneyland, take my whole family and be able to buy clothes whenever I wanted to. And I didn't have to use a coupon and all of that. Like I had a whole world of rich in my mind. And this one woman at the table said, I just wanna buy butter and not look at the price.

That was it for her because she says every time I go, I have to find the cheapest butter 'cause I can't afford butter. And I thought, wow. I want you to think about that idea in your mind. What do you think it means to be rich and what do you think it means to be poor? And don't gimme a scripture answer. I want a real live answer.

Go. I'm with the butter lady. Yeah. Or eggs. [01:14:00] You could say that today. Right now. Like seriously. Butter and eggs and chocolate and oats right now. Which is the world I live. They're so expensive. Oh yeah. You're a baker. Yeah. So yeah, like you get the butter. I'm with that, but I remember, um. When Ryan and I were first married and we had our first child of six on the way, and I remember us having this conversation was like, man, if we just made this much money per month mm-hmm.

Gosh, we would have it made. Can you imagine what that would be like? Well, that number is come and gone, and we still are just like, okay, just not sure how this one's gonna work, but we'll figure it out. Right. Yeah. Boy, isn't that the truth? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You've never felt more rich or more poor in one day, right?

Yeah. Yeah. I felt both in one day, for sure. Mm-hmm. Well, that's good, Natalie. Okay, Jenny, what about you? I think, um, I knew that we were okay when I could buy the, already cut up fruits and vegetables at Harmon's, you know, they were already cut up. They were in a fancy little container. Mm-hmm. You know, I didn't have to take the pineapple home and fight with it, you know, that's how I knew that we were okay to clean the celery and cut it up into portions.

Oh yeah, yeah, sure. Oh yeah. You're rich, very rich. You weren't before you were. Poor fact, she shops at Harmon. Oh yeah, yeah. For those of you listening, Harmons in Utah is a very fancy grocery store. They sell gelato at the Harmon, so, and they have a whole cheese selection. You better believe I go there once in a while and I peruse that cheese section.

I'm fine. It's heaven right there. I love it. What about you, Tiffany? Okay, so when you were telling us to think about this, I was thinking more like doctrine aspects, right? So I haven't really given this a lot of thoughts. Well, she's been out of the country for a week, so rich. She was on a cruise. Oh yeah, that's right.

I'll answer for you. Tiffany, you just got back from a cruise. Okay. You're rich. Okay. This is so fun because Dr. [01:16:00] Section 56 addresses who is rich and who is poor. So let's go into this section now. What you wanna know first is in the section heading, 'cause I told you there was a man who didn't get to go on a mission.

This section says it's a revelation given through Joseph Smith in Kirtland, Ohio. This revelation chastises Ezra Thayer for not obeying a former revelation, which is the commandment referred to in verse eight, when Joseph Smith had received for him instructing Thay concerning his duties on Frederick g Williams farm where he lived the following revelation.

Also, revokes pH's call to travel to Missouri with Thomas B. Marsh. So verse eight, we'll go ahead and just read that Jenny read verse eight so we can see what he, the Lord had to say to him. Sure. Again, verily, I say unto you that my servant, Ezra Thaer, must repent of his pride and of his selfishness and obey the former commandment, which I have given him concerning the place upon which he lives.

Thank you. So there is his correction and his word for Ezra Thaer, that then he goes into talking about who is rich and who is poor under living this new law that they're going to have to live in Ohio. So let's go to verses 14 and 15 and Natalie, will you read those for us? Sure. Behold. Thus say it the Lord unto my people.

You have many things to do and to repent up for. Behold, your sins have come up unto me and are not pardoned because you seek to cancel in your own ways and your hearts are not satisfied and you obey not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness. Oh, okay. That is so uncomfortable, isn't it? So the Lord's calling out my people.

In verse 14, it says, th say the Lord unto my people. Circle my people. And then let's go in and define who he's talking to. So verse 16, Tiffany, can you read that for us please? Sure. Whoa unto you, rich men that will not give your substance to the poor. For your riches will anchor your souls, and this shall be your [01:18:00] lamentation.

In the day of visitation and of judgment, and of indignation, the harvest is passed. The summer has ended, and my soul is not saved. Excellent. Good job. Circle rich men. What you wanna know is what this means is rich men are those, it says they won't give them their substance to the poor for their riches.

In this definition and under the law that they're living is rich men are those who will get back less than they put in by living the law of consecration. So that's how the Lord's defining rich men, those who get back less than they put in. So now let's find out who the poor are and what he has to say to the poor.

And so we're gonna go into verse 17. Now, I'll read that. Woe unto you, poor men. So circle that, whose hearts are not broken, whose spirits are not contrite, and whose bellies are not satisfied and whose hands are not stayed from laying hold upon other men's goods whose eyes are full of greediness and who will not labor with your own hands.

Now the poor in the law of consecration are those who get back more than they put in by living this law. So he is, he, no one is going un blamed in this scenario right here. We have rich, we have poor, but then we have verse 18. So let's go there. Because now he's going to use this word and it's a collective word.

Verse 18 starts out, but blessed are the poor circle, that this is rich and poor. It's a collective poor. So he's saying, blessed are all of you, those who are poor, who are, and now as I read verse 18, will you guys mark in verse 18 while I read it, what makes someone poor? Here we go. Blessed are the collective poor who are pure in heart, whose hearts are broken and whose spirits are contrite.

For they shall see the kingdom of God coming in power and great glory unto their deliverance. For the fatness of the earth shall be theirs. [01:20:00] What did you find? What makes someone poor in this context For God, pure in heart. Mm Yep. Contrite spirit. Their spirits contrite. Yep. Whose hearts are broken? Very good.

So Tiffany, give me your religious answer to my question. What makes someone rich or poor? I think somebody who's rich. It, it is, they have true happiness. Um, actually on my cruise we saw a lot of things that we don't see here close to home, but they seem to be happy people, happy with their souls, they're happy with what they have.

Oh, I like how you just said that. Happy with their souls. That's a great way to describe someone who's rich, spiritually happy with their souls. Any other thoughts, Natalie or Jenny? I think, um, you know, those that have the knowledge and have the testimony of it, you know, and, you know, unwavering, like certain little hiccups because we're all human.

We're gonna get offended. It's gonna happen. Somebody is gonna wrong us. Right? But if we have that pure celestial knowledge of what's to come, that this life is just temporary. I mean, to me that is, nobody can take that from me. That's mine. I've worked for it. I still have more to learn and more to work for, but it makes me so happy.

I feel so rich in the gospel. It's like you said, it's just a little season. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yes, Tiffany? Well, with what Natalie said, and because she, she's a baker, [01:22:00] um, we're layering the cake and I kind of envision it as we're laying our cake until the day comes where we pass on, or, yeah. Where. He comes again.

Okay, that is really cool, Tiffany, because you're gonna love this next verse. Then look at verse 19, speaking of layering cakes, okay, and doing all the things. So in verse 18, blessed are the poor who are pure in heart, whose hearts are broken, whose spirits are contrite. Here's why you wanna be poor. Here's the best reason for it.

Verse 19. For behold, the Lord shall come and his recompense shall be with him, and he shall reward every man, and the poor shall rejoice. Circle and highlight recompense and then connect it To reward every man, I'm gonna give you two cross references for that verse. It's doctrine and covenant, section one verse 10, and then Alma chapter 41 verses 14 through 15.

So again, that's doctrine and covenant. Section one verse 10, and then Alma chapter 41 verses 14 through 15. Okay, so here we go. Let's go to section one, verse 10. And Tiffany, will you read that verse for us please? Sure. And then Natalie, will you read Alma chapter 41 verses 14 through 15? Yep. This is one of my most favorite concepts to teach, but mostly when I learned it, it struck my heart because when he says he's going to recompense and he's going to reward, he really is.

And this goes back to this layering cake, because I love cake and I want the biggest, best cake possible. I want a Natalie cake is what I want. When Jesus comes. And here the scriptures teach this, you are going to get back what you give. So go ahead and read the first doctrine in cabinets, verse four, Tiffany.

All right. Unto the day, when the Lord shall Come to [01:24:00] recompense unto every man, according to His work and measure to every man according to the measure which he has measured to his pillow, man. Okay, there's measure. Don't you love this baking wording right here, Natalie? Yeah. So he is going to like, the idea is, and we're gonna go clear back to how we started when it comes to our stewardship.

If you are only willing to hand over to the Lord a half a cup of your goodness, or a fourth of a cup of your ability to do, or a teaspoon of being able to listen and if that's it. That's all you're getting back from the Lord. The moment you start to measure out your stewardship to the Lord is when he starts to measure it back.

So it's just easier to just give freely, like, I'm giving it all to you. Use everything. What can you do with me? And he's like, I'm gonna make the biggest cake possible, and you're gonna get a really great cake back. So listen to this next one in Alma, and then Jenny, I want you to share your thought. Okay, go ahead.

Therefore, my son, see that you are merciful unto your brethren. Deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually. And if you do all these things, then shall you receive your reward. Yay. You shall have mercy restored unto you again. You shall have justice restored unto you again. You shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again, and you shall have good rewarded unto you again for that which you do send out.

Shall it return unto you again and be restored. Therefore, the word restoration more fully commend at the sinner and justify of him. Not at all. Thank you. This is why we live the law of consecration right here. And I love how you said Natalie, because this is eternal life. We're, we're figuring it out right now when we're building it.

Jenny, go ahead. So I was just thinking, um, as we were reading through this and talking about the layers of a cake and, and a big cake, and I was thinking, you know, if, if we're. If we're [01:26:00] truly happy where we're at, and we have accepted, you know, we have this, this higher knowledge, we have a testimony in it and everything, why wouldn't, why would we wanna keep this big cake all to ourselves?

Why, why wouldn't we want to have people to share it with? And, and to me, that's what makes it feel more rich is, is to have the people to, to share it with. I could have all the money in the world, but mm-hmm. If I didn't have anybody to share it with, what fun would that be? Right. And that's what I wanna share.

My cake. Yes. Oh, I love that Jenny so much. And that is the law of consecration. I'm not gonna keep it all for myself. Mm-hmm. I'm going to share, I'm going to be a steward. We've all been given, I kind of feel like I'm a steward over this cake now. And so I want everyone to partake him. Here you go, Bishop.

Here's what I have to offer. Put me where you need me. I'm gonna do my best with the gifts that I've been given. And so isn't it fascinating that the Lord is teaching these early saints, this law of consecration, and now the way we understand it today is just so much bigger. I'm so thankful for the early Saints that were willing to live it in this way, and we look at it and we think that must have been so hard.

But now I wonder if they look at us and go, wow, there's a lot of work to do. Like we have a lot to do too, because I will, I'll share my food storage with you, but we're we're really pressed for time. And how willing are we to offer up our time and our stewardship that we've been given by the Lord to serve other people and to share that cake?

I love how you said that, Jenny. So thank you. Thank you, ladies. That's the end of our discussion. Wow. That was so good. Yay. So good. Okay, just take a minute, look through your notes, everything we've done. Share with me. What eternal truth did you learn or relearn in our discussion today? I. I think for me it was, um, there, there were a lot of things actually, but I think that what really resonated with me was when Tiff talked about layering the cake and, and how each, each thing we're [01:28:00] going through is, is a different layer in, in building our progression towards e eternal life.

Mm-hmm. Thank you, Jenny. Great one. Great truth. When we were talking about patterns and that we all have choices, heavenly father doesn't expect the end result tonight. Mm. He, he doesn't expect. All right. Now he gave us a pattern so that we can continue to build, continue to work, continue to trust. And I know that there are times that heaven, my father is like, oh, okay, Natalie, try again.

Like, I'm gonna hang onto these blessings for you for a little bit while, and I'm not saying I'm not blessed, I am very blessed. I think there's times where I could be more blessed and heavenly father's like, ah, try again. Mm-hmm. You know what? He gives me the choice to do it and I get to do it, and I get to try again, and then I get to receive the blessing.

But man, if we don't work for things, they're just handed to us. You know? I mean, if all this was just worked out for the Saints and everything went perfectly, can you imagine how our lives would be? It's because of them, because of their work, because of their hearts. So that was one. And then the other thing is just remembering that everything is the Lord's.

Yeah. He was his first and he, speaking of the law of consecration, he generously gives us more than he's ever going to get back. I can never repay, no matter how hard I try and how many days on the earth he gives me, I can never give back everything that he's already given me. And I know that there's more to come because that's the kind of God he is.

Oh, Natalie. Thank you. Great truths, TIFF. So the one part that stood, stands out to me now is the meaning of steward. Mm. Um, and it's it [01:30:00] strong to me that we are his stewards. Yeah. And we are God's authorized representatives. Oh, I like that. I'm actually gonna put that next to the word steward and that's under the meaning of steward.

Oh, how cool is that? Thank you for pointing that out. Wow. Great takeaways. Great eternal truths. Mine goes back to our whole discussion on the Lord's pattern, because when you guys explain to me what a pattern does, I hope I never forget that because you said it gives guidance and direction without a pattern.

It doesn't turn out. Everything runs smoothly with a pattern. It makes things steadier and calmer, and there's purpose and habit. I loved that, and I'm going to try to imply that pattern more in my life and to more situations now. 'cause I think our world needs this. We need to be reminded that there is a pattern for goodness.

And if what you're looking at and what you're viewing and what you're listening to doesn't fall within that pattern, guess what? It's not gonna fit right. It's just not gonna fit. And so it's not worth your time or your effort to even try to cut out on that material or sew or pin or anything because you're not gonna want it when it's done.

So just turn away you don't need that and find something that does fit the pattern. So I loved our discussion on that. You guys did an awesome job. So thank you all. Thank you. We're done. You guys are the best. I love you. The Telford sisters. Oh wow. Thank you so much. Stem, and I think I say for all of us, like we truly enjoy what we have learned from you over the years.

Oh, thank you. It's like even when you were talking about your go-to scripture, mine, and I don't even know the reference, but it's, and my father dwelled in a tent. I dunno the reference, but you know what, like that came to my mind when we were thinking like poor and rich or what? The fact that you taught me.

That they had so many riches and he was so willing to dwell in a tent. Right? Like that is my favorite because there's times where I'm [01:32:00] like, heavenly father had so much more in store. Like, okay, I'm just, I'm happy I'm gonna dwell in my tent. Oh, more is coming. I love it. I love it. Yeah. You taught me that.

You've taught us so many things. Okay, what was your takeaway? Go join our group on Facebook or follow us on Instagram to share what you have learned. And then I ask a question at the end of the week on a Saturday. So post your answer to the question, and I'm gonna ask, what is your go-to comfort verse of scripture?

I really wanna know what yours is. Well, that be so fun to have a big, long list of everybody's go-to comfort scriptures. So comment on the post that relates to this lesson and share your scripture. You can get to both our Facebook and Instagram by going to the show notes for this episode at ldsliving.com slash Sunday on Monday, and go there.

Anyway, it's where we're gonna have links to all the references as well as a transcript of this whole discussion. So go check it out. The Sunday on Monday Study Group is a desert Bookshelf plus original, brought to you by LDS Living. It's written and hosted by me, Tammy Lac Hall. And today our incredible, wonderful, fabulous study group participants were the Telford sisters.

Natalie Telford Colemere, Tiffany Telford Larson, and Jenny Telford Olsen. And you can find more information about my friends at ldsliving.com slash Sunday on Monday. Our podcast is produced by Cole Wissinger and me. It is edited and mixed by Cole Wissinger, and our executive producer is Erin Hallstrom. Thanks for being here.

We'll see you next week, and please remember that you are God's favorite.